LOWER POTTSGROVE — With a 4-1 vote Thursday, township commissioners approved a new five-year trash and recycling contract with J.P. Mascaro & Sons that will cost $1.6 million in the first year, which Commissioner Mike McGroarty said represents a 20-percent increase in the first year.
Price increases in subsequent years of the contract are fixed between 2 percent and 3 percent, the commissioners said. Lower Pottsgrove residents pay for trash pick-up through their property taxes and not in a separate fee.
McGroarty, who is on the commissioners’ finance committee, which is now putting together the 2026 budget, cast the only vote against the new contract.
“This is going to have a huge impact on the township budget and ultimately, the residents,” McGroarty said. “In 2025, trash represents 12 percent of the annual budget, and by 2026, it will represent 16 percent. I have a hard time swallowing this, and I can’t support it in good conscience,” he said.
McGroarty also expressed “disappointment” that the commissioners only had one bid to choose from.
That’s because the commissioners followed Township Solicitor Jamie Ottaviano’s advice and rejected the only other bid, from Whitetail Disposal — even though it was the lowest bid.
Ottaviano said Whitetail’s bid was deficient in that it did not include documentation of the bid specifications required, particularly as it related to the four different landfills in which Whitetail proposed to deposit Lower Pottsgrove trash. Those missing documents made Whitetails’ bid “non-responsive,” he said.
The board voted 5-0 to reject Whitetail’s bid.
Mascaro, on the other hand, owns the Pioneer Crossing Landfill outside Birdsboro and only needed to provide documentation about one landfill — its own.
Paul Brady, president and chief operating officer at Whitetail, said the reason the township had only one bid is that its specifications are too complicated. He said that’s likely the reason that other haulers — including Waste Management, the largest such company in the nation — did not submit a bid in response to Lower Pottsgrove’s requests for bids.
“We have contracts in 30 other municipalities and this is the only time we have run into a (request for bid) with these specifications,” said Brady. “It’s anti-competitive and anti-consistent, the way this RFP was written,” he told the commissioners.
Pat Mascaro, president of Mascaro and Sons, replied that Whitetail might have been better prepared if they had attended the pre-bid meeting the township held before issuing its bids.
Brady’s complaint “is a little disingenuous,” said Mascaro. “They can’t meet the specifications because they don’t have the infrastructure. When you don’t have the goods, you have to try something.” He added, “If you can’t get the paperwork right, how are you going to get it right on the street?
The township is in the final year of a previous five-year contract with Mascaro.
